Author: Kelsey Myers

Before the summer of 2022, most people outside of Cuyahoga County were unaware of Progress Drive, a section of road in Strongsville, Ohio. It’s a typical residential street with brick buildings on either side and little activity at five in the morning. A Toyota Camry turned onto it on July 31 of that year and accelerated to 100 miles per hour. The vehicle collided with a structure. Before the paramedics could do much, two people inside were dead. Strongsville is still changing as a result of that morning. When Mackenzie Shirilla drove that vehicle, she was seventeen years old. Her…

The media frequently ignores the version of Bettina Anderson that existed prior to the White House holiday party, before Donald Trump made the engagement announcement at a podium, and before the Daily Mail published pictures of her and Trump Jr. holding hands. It is worthwhile to devote some time to that previous version. Because the details of what she studied, where she studied it, and what she did with it provide a more comprehensive narrative than most coverage tries to uncover. Palm Beach, Florida, where Anderson grew up, sounds like a postcard and is for the most part—wide streets lined…

The version of Josh Hart’s story in which he fails to survive is one that is never shared. When a school in Washington, D.C. removes a struggling student from its student body after threatening to do so. Where a young man from Silver Spring, Maryland, struggles to get his bearings. Although that version didn’t come to pass, it nearly did, and knowing that near-miss reveals nearly everything about Josh Hart’s personality. Hart was raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, which is situated near enough to the nation’s capital to sense its vibrancy without actually being a part of it. He may…

Robert Harward, the retired admiral who declined Donald Trump’s offer to become National Security Advisor in February 2017, a few days after Michael Flynn’s resignation, is the name most people are familiar with from a single news cycle. The moment was dramatic. However, the refusal isn’t the more fascinating tale. The man who was able to turn down that room and leave without turning around was the result of decades of training and education. The fact that Harward was born into a Navy family in Newport, Rhode Island, speaks volumes about the environment in which he was raised. However, the…

The story of Vanessa Trump, the model who married into one of America’s most scrutinized families before discreetly leaving, is one that is primarily told in tabloid shorthand. However, if you take a closer look, you’ll see a woman whose early life was actually very specific, based on the unique topography and social structure of Manhattan’s Upper East Side. She was raised in a townhouse in that area, which has its own unwritten expectations about where you’ll attend school, how you’ll behave, and what kind of future is expected of you. After that, she went to The Dwight School, a…

It’s important to take a moment to consider a detail about Kyle Busch’s early life that is often overlooked in favor of trophy counts and lap records. He was sitting in a Spring Valley, Nevada, classroom, turning in As and Bs because his mother insisted on it, before he became one of the most decorated drivers in NASCAR history. That wasn’t a minor issue. Gaye Busch wasn’t being challenging. She was being pragmatic in her own way. Kyle needed to demonstrate that he was capable of handling more than a steering wheel if he wanted to compete. The agreement was…

There’s a certain type of high school athlete whose numbers are so ridiculous that the lack of interest from recruiters almost seems like a collective delusion. That athlete was Taylor Heinicke. Playing his senior season at Collins Hill High School in Suwanee, Georgia — a sprawling suburb northeast of Atlanta where Friday nights carry real weight in the community — he threw for 4,218 passing yards, which at the time was the second-highest single-season total in Georgia state history. He added 44 touchdown passes, which was the third-highest total ever recorded by the state. In nine different games, he threw…

When powerful people share a room but lack a common vision, a certain kind of institutional stubbornness takes hold. Commissioners, athletic directors, and media executives have spent days discussing the main issue that no one seems to be able to clearly answer at the Big Ten’s spring meetings in Rancho Palos Verdes, a quietly pricey stretch of California coastline that seems strangely appropriate for a discussion about money: if the College Football Playoff expands to 24 teams, who is actually funding this thing? The College Football Playoff expansion dispute can be summed up as follows: the Big Ten wants 24…

It doesn’t appear to be much. A transparent plastic sheet in the shape of a funnel with calibrated measurement lines printed along its sides is the kind of item you might walk past in a hospital supply room without giving it much thought. However, what researchers at the University of Birmingham have created with this straightforward tool is, by most accounts, one of the most significant advances in maternal health in recent memory. Additionally, the price is comparable to that of a candy bar.The University of Birmingham postpartum drape was created to address a problem that has been present in…

Imagine a five-year-old sitting at a tiny desk with a pencil in hand, gazing at a sheet of questions intended to gauge whether or not she is reaching anticipated developmental milestones. She is still unable to read every word. The room is quiet in a way that a child finds unsettling—not the cozy quiet of a library, but the tense quiet of a place where something is being scrutinized. She moves around in her chair. Her stomach aches. Apparently, this is education. For years, OMEP, the World Organization for Early Childhood Education, has been fighting against this perception. Its stance…